1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video query and editing system, and more particularly to a video query and editing system which is capable of querying (or retrieving) and editing images without fast-forward and playback or other operations and of specifying an editing start or end point easily. In addition, the present invention relates to a video query and editing system which is capable of querying and editing images and then transmitting only the edited parts on a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional editing of a motion picture, an editing system in which a VTR tape is used or a device in which digital data recorded in a hard disk or the like is used. For the editing system in which the VTR tape is used, a section for an edition is determined by using functions such as fast-forward and playback operations for editing works. It, however, needs a rewind or fast-forward operation by controlling the tape for every specification of an editing section, thus taking a lot of work time for editing.
On the other hand, if digital motion picture data is stored in a hard disk, it is possible to reduce editing time since an image at a specified time can be displayed at a high speed by using random access properties of the hard disk.
In both devices, however, mainly the fast-forward and playback functions are desired to be used for querying the contents of the motion picture, thus requiring much time for editing a long-time material. In addition, for editing a material covered in a distant place, a recorded VTR tape is mailed to an editing place or a picture is transmitted to the editing place while a playback operation is performed through a line for a picture display. In addition, for the digital motion picture data, the data is transferred by using a file transfer means (FTP: File transfer protocol). Therefore, in both cases, all of the material is transmitted to the editing place once and then edited, thus leading to an increase of a transmission cost.
Furthermore, if an image is coded in an MPEG system, for example, it is decoded once to restore the image so as to be recorded in a VTR or in a hard disk before editing, and after the edition, the image is coded again, whereby there is a possibility that it takes a long time for working processes previous to or subsequent to the editing or that an image quality is degraded every editing time.
As set forth hereinabove, in the conventional system, the fast-forward and playback or other operations are performed to query editing sections, whereby it has a problem that it takes a long time for editing works. In addition, to edit a picture covered in a distant place, all the pictures are transmitted to an editing place once, and therefore it has a problem that the transmission cost is increased. Furthermore, if pictures are compressed in the MPEG system, a need exists for decoding and compression for every editing, and therefore it has problems that the editing time and cost are increased and that the image quality is degraded.